Were it not for the invention of Twitter, this would have been the quietest recruitment of a high school basketball superstar since they used to do the whole thing by telegraph. Andrew Wiggins did not want all the attention, which, in the modern media world, only amplified the desire of others to force the interest upon him.

Wiggins became like a Hollywood star trying to dodge the paparazzi, but without the black SUVs and dangerous driving tactics. He gave no hints about where he would play college basketball—not to the four coaches close to signing him, not even to the parents whose genes presented him with such wondrous athleticism and who raised him into this young man who craved privacy but could not help but draw attention to himself.

Choosing to play college basketball at Kansas, then, is an odd sort of paradox. Wiggins has selected the very place where the spotlight upon him will be most intense.

Unlike at Florida State, Kentucky and North Carolina, Wiggins joins a basketball program that has no returning starters. There are other high-profile recruits, but not a one who is a household name even among those who follow that element of the sport with passion. He will join the Jayhawks not for a rebuilding year, because coach Bill Self does not do rebuilding years. The Jayhawks will be expected to win the Big 12 championship and threaten a deep NCAA Tournament run, because this is what they always do. And Andrew Wiggins will be expected to deliver it.

“He’s going to be the man,” KU radio analyst Greg Gurley told Sporting News. “I think he chose the place—you look at our schedule next year, and we’ve got Duke and we play at Florida—I’m sure he looked at that and decided he wanted to be in the middle of all that.

“But from everything you hear about it, he was going to be the man most everywhere.”

A 6-8 small forward from Toronto who played the last two seasons at Huntington Prep in West Virginia, Wiggins is unanimously considered the No. 1 prospect in a rich 2013 recruiting class that includes such players as power forward Julius Randle (headed to Kentucky) and small forward Jabari Parker (who’ll play at Duke). Either might have been the No. 1 player in several recent seasons.

What separates Wiggins is next-level athleticism that ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla compares to that of N.C. State legend David Thompson. Once in an NCAA Tournament game, Thompson leaped for a rebound and tripped over the shoulder of teammate Tim Stoddard, a 6-9 power forward. So when such comparisons are in order, we are talking about the potential for something not just special, but spectacular.

Andrew Wiggins to Kansas

The Kansas team Wiggins joins will need a player to build around. There is no one returning who averaged even a half-dozen points per game, no obvious answer at point guard, no established true center.

What KU has is some promising young talent and some highly regarded – but, aside from Wiggins, not top-of-the-charts – recruits. Power forward Perry Ellis averaged 14 minutes per game, but had a breakout performance in the Big 12 Tournament with 43 points in 56 minutes over three games. Big Jamari Traylor, who may play both inside positions as a sophomore, didn’t play much in KU’s biggest games but had more than his share of breathtaking moments. Backup point Naadir Tharpe was occasionally prone to turnovers or tough shooting days, but he played major minutes in the run to the Sweet 16.

Among the recruits, center Joel Embiid has started to look like a future first-round pick. Wings Wayne Selden and Brannen Greene are major talents. Combo guard Connor Frankamp is one of the nation’s best pure shooters, having led the U.S. to the FIBA U17 World Championship with a team-best 14.1 points per game, along with 14-of-31 3-point shooting.

Wiggins has played mostly in Nike programs during the development process, and Kansas is a program that wears adidas gear. Some thought that would keep the Jayhawks from winning the race to sign Wiggins. That turned out to be wrong.

“We have a young squad,” Gurley said. “This puts them right into the mix of it next year.”

Wiggins was going to be the best talent wherever he landed, but there would have been more players to absorb some of the pressure and defensive attention – or:

Had Wiggins chosen Kentucky, he would have been part of a recruiting class that already featured the No. 1 prospect at the other four positions: power forward (Randle), center (Dakari Johnson), shooting guard (Aaron Harrison) and point guard (Andrew Harrison). The Wildcats also feature two high-level pro prospects who were freshmen last season, center Willie Cauley-Stein and forward Alex Poythress.

At North Carolina, Wiggins would have entered a lineup that already contains forward James Michael McAdoo and wing P.J. Hairston, each of whom was a mid-teens scorer last season.

At Florida State, frankly, he would have joined an accomplished program that is not the top athletic priority on campus.

A Kansas basketball game at Allen Fieldhouse draws the fervent attention of the 15,000 in the building and the passion of one of the college game’s most loyal fan bases. So there’ll be no place for Wiggins to hide. He will be playing underneath banners dedicated to the careers of Wilt Chamberlain, Danny Manning, Clyde Lovellette and Paul Pierce, the gods of KU basketball, and he’ll be expected to perform in their likeness.

“It always amazes me when recruits come here and say no,” said Gurley, who played at KU from 1992-95. “I just don’t understand that because I’m biased.

“I think we ought to shift it more to talking about Bill, how he’s able to get the elite guys like that. He picked the place that he thought he had the best chance.”

Wiggins also picked the spot where every set of eyes will land upon. That might have been the biggest upset.

Had Wiggins chosen Kentucky, he would have been part of a recruiting class that already featured the No. 1 prospect at the other four positions: power forward (Randle), center (Dakari Johnson), shooting guard (Aaron Harrison) and point guard (Andrew Harrison). The Wildcats also feature two high-level pro prospects who were freshmen last season, center Willie Cauley-Stein and forward Alex Poythress.

At North Carolina, Wiggins would have entered a lineup that already contains forward James Michael McAdoo and wing P.J. Hairston, each of whom was a mid-teens scorer last season.

At Florida State, frankly, he would have joined an accomplished program that is not the top athletic priority on campus.